Jerry Beck's Cartoon Matinee

The show kicks off with Richard Williams rarities from his career in title design advertising and short films! Striving to make the crowning visionary masterpiece of his career, acclaimed animator Richard Williams spent nearly three decades of his life toiling away on The Thief And The Cobbler (a radical new project started in the Sixties, but finally slated for completion only after Williams’ Oscar for 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit), only to have it torn from his hands at the very last minute. Re-cut, re-voiced and re-drawn, the final product is a shadow of what “could have been” — and Thief’s tumultuous offscreen saga is the stuff of legend amongst historians, animation fans and film lovers. Using incredible footage from Williams’ lost epic, rare archival footage and interviews with Thief crew members, director Kevin Schreck brings this legendary chapter of cinema history to the screen for the very first time. Called a “Herculean accomplishment” (indieWIRE) and a “fascinating slice of film history” (Variety), this is the gripping story of the greatest animated film never made.
Dir. Kevin Schreck, 2012, digital presentation, 83 min.

JERRY BECK'S CARTOON MATINEE: Technicolor Toons

Color Rhapsodies, Terrytoons, Noveltoons!

5/18/2013 - 4:30PM

With the total marginalization of film just on the horizon, there’s never been a better time to celebrate the greatest film stock of all: Technicolor, the cream-of-the-crop chemical film process requiring three separate negatives to create its vivid images. And, unlike other film stocks, Tech’s colors never faded. We’ve dug up a whole program of diverse classic cartoons with only one thing in common — each is a vintage film print struck in the original three-strip Tech process. Join animation historian Jerry Beck for an entire buffet of 35mm Technicolor cartoons from the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s. Sadly, Technicolor’s dye-transfer process, used during the golden age of Hollywood, stopped due to costs in 1974. Luckily, prints still exist — but they’re getting scarce. This is going to be one helluva show, with Color Rhapsodies, Terrytoons and Noveltoons galore.

Watch the 1949 short “Technicolor for Industrial Films”!

Jerry Beck Presents: Funny Paper Follies

Classic cartoon craziness ripped from the funnies

4/13/2013 - 4PM

If you think Hollywood going mad for superheroes and comic books is a new thing — think again. Comics have inspired animated films for decades, beginning with the earliest animated films from over one hundred years ago (Little Nemo in Slumberland, 1908). Resident Cinefamily animation historian Jerry Beck (www.CartoonResearch.com) will present the best examples of such comics-to-film adaptations, with rare 35mm and 16mm prints of classic shorts starring Popeye, L’il Abner, Superman, The Little King, Krazy Kat and many many others. It’s Pop-Art at its most poppiest, populist and pure four-color fun!